The New Breed of Income Funds

Multi-asset income funds cast a wide net for yield, and take very different approaches. Here's a look at five of them that have achieved solid returns.

Investors, especially those with an eye toward retirement, are in a frantic hunt for yield. And the mutual-fund industry is in an equally frenzied quest to help them find it.

Neither are having an easy time. Investors have spent the past five years paying more and more for less and less yield, whether it be for master limited partnerships, real-estate investment trusts, bonds, dividend-paying stocks, or more-esoteric products.